Willis: Klefbom has generally played quite well. He skates well, engages physically and moves the puck exceptionally for a defensive defenceman. The problem is that he’s still awfully raw. He doesn’t think the game like an NHL defenceman; he’ll get there but he needs time. How much time? At this point I’d pencil him in for third pairing minutes in the NHL next season and leave him with Todd Nelson for the rest of this year. He’s killing penalties and learning both sides of the ice in Oklahoma; it’s better for him to make those mistakes down here than at the NHL level where it’s going to cost the team and open the player up to high levels of criticism.

Willis is a donkey's ass. Klefbom looks like ****. In fact the entire d in OKC looks like crap. Not unlike the Oilers.

Willis is a donkey's ass. Klefbom looks like ****. In fact the entire d in OKC looks like crap. Not unlike the Oilers.

We have a bunch of really young guys, and the Vets we have are all nhl rejects with huge blemishes, we don't have one of those steady smart vet defenders who just wasn't fast or big enough to. None are "good pros" essentially. we sent vets with horrible habits to teach kids. Just another Oilers tumor spreading.

There we have it, Eakins crappy system in effect in OKC to go with our managements crappy system.

We have a bunch of really young guys, and the Vets we have are all nhl rejects with huge blemishes, we don't have one of those steady smart vet defenders who just wasn't fast or big enough to. None are "good pros" essentially. we sent vets with horrible habits to teach kids. Just another Oilers tumor spreading.

There we have it, Eakins crappy system in effect in OKC to go with our managements crappy system.

OKC's defensive zone coverage is just as abysmal and chaotic as the Oilers. Its bizarre. Fire Eakins now!

Klefbom has a lot of potential and I am pretty far away from writing him off.

Regarding his offense I am not really sure what you were expecting but one thing which (imo) is a red line for many FBK prospects is that they normally focus 100% on defense. Once they are comfortable defensively they start taking more initiative in the offense. Klefbom certainly has the attributes to be a good two-way defenseman.

Not all too surprising about Klefbom's struggles. OKC has been a developmental graveyard under Nelson's regime, it's where promising careers have gone to die for the most part although it's obviously way too early to proclaim Klefbom a bust but the early signs don't look good.
I don't know if that's because Nelson doesn't know how to develop young players or if it's the Oilers stink spreading to OKC but it has been an epidemic that has plagued the Oilers organization for years. Even Petry who is one of the few success stories to come out of OKC looks to have flatlined or even regressed in some facets.

Then again, the young players on the big club outside of maybe Hall aren't progressing either so it seems to be an organizational problem moreso than just an OKC problem.
It makes it hard to get excited for any prospect based on their track record.

Not all too surprising about Klefbom's struggles. OKC has been a developmental graveyard under Nelson's regime, it's where promising careers have gone to die for the most part although it's obviously way too early to proclaim Klefbom a bust but the early signs don't look good.
I don't know if that's because Nelson doesn't know how to develop young players or if it's the Oilers stink spreading to OKC but it has been an epidemic that has plagued the Oilers organization for years. Even Petry who is one of the few success stories to come out of OKC looks to have flatlined or even regressed in some facets.

Then again, the young players on the big club outside of maybe Hall aren't progressing either so it seems to be an organizational problem moreso than just an OKC problem.
It makes it hard to get excited for any prospect based on their track record.

Yet most of our players from down there have played good when called up..
Larsen, Arcobello, Pitlick have all looked good .. Omark is putting up big numbers in the graveyard.. Lander looks pretty good as well... Hartikainen, Rajala, Pitlick all had decent seasons last year.. J.Schultz\Ebs etc had a good stint too.

Just because guys like Curtin Hamilton, Teubert and Plante did not pan out does not make Nelson a bad coach.

Yet most of our players from down there have played good when called up..
Larsen, Arcobello, Pitlick have all looked good .. Omark is putting up big numbers in the graveyard.. Lander looks pretty good as well... Hartikainen, Rajala, Pitlick all had decent seasons last year.. J.Schultz\Ebs etc had a good stint too.

Just because guys like Curtin Hamilton, Teubert and Plante did not pan out does not make Nelson a bad coach.

Larsen is incredibly overrated. He skates very fast and makes a few nice passes, not much else. He was groomed in the Dallas system anyway.
Pitlick looked good in a few games, doesn't really mean much. He accomplished virtually nothing in OKC. Lets see if he can become an NHL regular, the jury is still out on him.
Arcobello looks ok but he's not really a part of the future of this team IMO.
Hartikainen and Rajala are currently playing overseas.
Omark is not an NHL prospect anymore.
I actually like Lander but he is only now starting to discover some offensive touch after a couple of stagnant seasons in OKC. Will he be any more than a 4th line center? I'm not so sure.
Marincin is ok but it's not like he has taken big steps forward over the past few seasons.
Who can you point to and say that the player was successfully developed through the farm system? Is there even one overachiever in the group, just one?
The idea of a farm system is to develop players for NHL readiness and the farm system has churned out very few NHL successes. Petry looks like the only one thus far, possibly Arcobello as well. Most of the others have been swings and misses.

Larsen is incredibly overrated. He skates very fast and makes a few nice passes, not much else. He was groomed in the Dallas system anyway.
Pitlick looked good in a few games, doesn't really mean much. He accomplished virtually nothing in OKC. Lets see if he can become an NHL regular, the jury is still out on him.
Arcobello looks ok but he's not really a part of the future of this team IMO.
Hartikainen and Rajala are currently playing overseas.
Omark is not an NHL prospect anymore.
I actually like Lander but he is only now starting to discover some offensive touch after a couple of stagnant seasons in OKC. Will he be any more than a 4th line center? I'm not so sure.
Marincin is ok but it's not like he has taken big steps forward over the past few seasons.
Who can you point to and say that the player was successfully developed through the farm system? Is there even one overachiever in the group, just one?
The idea of a farm system is to develop players for NHL readiness and the farm system has churned out very few NHL successes. Petry looks like the only one thus far, possibly Arcobello as well. Most of the others have been swings and misses.

Most of our talent jumped straight into NHL. If the Oilers sent Yak back to Juniors last year and let him develop some more in AHL this year he would have been a good player to come through the system. To say that Oilers ruined guys like Plante, Teubert, Hamilton and all other busts is not a fair comment. These guys will suck no matter where they go..

He's missed most of the last two seasons of hockey. Lets give him a bit of time to get his feet wet in NA before we start using the B word.

But ya, Craig Mactavish is one of the most arrogant/stupid people in hockey today.

This keeps getting thrown around. He missed most of last season. He did not however miss most of the 11/12 season. I don't know where this came from but it's just plain wrong. I'd say 11/12 was Klefboms big season as far as development goes, he took massive leaps, so it was certainly not a lost season it was actually the other way around.

Maybe the misunderstanding that Klefbom missed a lot of the 11/12 season comes from people looking at the number of SHL games he played, 33, and thinks he missed a lot of that season. Thing is the number of games during the regular season are lower in the SHL than in the NHL/AHL, SHL only plays 55 games during the regular season.

The 11/12 season Klefbom played 33 out of 55 regular season games, so he missed 22 SHL games, but then you have to remember he started out the season playing mainly with Färjestads junior team where the frequency of games is even lower, I think it's around 45 games a season. In juniors he logged 15 games.
Add to that 12 international games and his total number of regular season games in 11/12 is 60 which is around where a guy sharing his time between the SHL and juniors should end up. I think he got banged up a few times that year but he didn't miss any substantial amount of time. And as I said that season was huge for his development so any smaller injuries that might have occured sure didn't hurt his play.

I'm surprised you of all people IATL who usually rags on people for sharing misinformation could make such a mistake. Shame on you, know go watch some Oil Kings!

About Klefboms play this season I think we need to give him a bit more than 20 or so games on NA soil before we can evaluate him properly. He missed most of last season(and no more than that), he's getting used to the smaller ice, he's a 20 year old in his first year away from home.
I'm guilty of maybe being a bit to high on him coming into this season, I underestimated how much the injury set him back, I thought(hoped) that he'd just need to shake off some rust for 15-20 games and then be back to old form. Clearly I was wrong, he hasn't looked like the player he was the weeks leading up to the injury, the player that really blew me and the pretty much the rest of hockey sweden away. Because that player truly was close to NHL ready. Just superb defensively, own zone decision making that none on our current d core can match, great outlet passes, great at skating the puck up ice.
I really hope he can get back to that level of play and then some, I'm certainly not ready to give up on him yet.

Also as I've stated many times before, if anyone is hoping for a flashy, offensive d-man who puts up big numbers they'll be disappointed. He's a big minute, defense first guy. He's the kind of guy you put with J.Schultz to make Justin look like an all star. Any points Klefbom will put up will be due to playing big minutes and making good first passes, basically 2nd assists and the occasional slapper. If he suddenly adds an actual offensive element watch out.

This keeps getting thrown around. He missed most of last season. He did not however miss most of the 11/12 season. I don't know where this came from but it's just plain wrong. I'd say 11/12 was Klefboms big season as far as development goes, he took massive leaps, so it was certainly not a lost season it was actually the other way around.

Maybe the misunderstanding that Klefbom missed a lot of the 11/12 season comes from people looking at the number of SHL games he played, 33, and thinks he missed a lot of that season. Thing is the number of games during the regular season are lower in the SHL than in the NHL/AHL, SHL only plays 55 games during the regular season.

The 11/12 season Klefbom played 33 out of 55 regular season games, so he missed 22 SHL games, but then you have to remember he started out the season playing mainly with Färjestads junior team where the frequency of games is even lower, I think it's around 45 games a season. In juniors he logged 15 games.
Add to that 12 international games and his total number of regular season games in 11/12 is 60 which is around where a guy sharing his time between the SHL and juniors should end up. I think he got banged up a few times that year but he didn't miss any substantial amount of time. And as I said that season was huge for his development so any smaller injuries that might have occured sure didn't hurt his play.

I'm surprised you of all people IATL who usually rags on people for sharing misinformation could make such a mistake. Shame on you, know go watch some Oil Kings!

About Klefboms play this season I think we need to give him a bit more than 20 or so games on NA soil before we can evaluate him properly. He missed most of last season(and no more than that), he's getting used to the smaller ice, he's a 20 year old in his first year away from home.
I'm guilty of maybe being a bit to high on him coming into this season, I underestimated how much the injury set him back, I thought(hoped) that he'd just need to shake off some rust for 15-20 games and then be back to old form. Clearly I was wrong, he hasn't looked like the player he was the weeks leading up to the injury, the player that really blew me and the pretty much the rest of hockey sweden away. Because that player truly was close to NHL ready. Just superb defensively, own zone decision making that none on our current d core can match, great outlet passes, great at skating the puck up ice.
I really hope he can get back to that level of play and then some, I'm certainly not ready to give up on him yet.

Also as I've stated many times before, if anyone is hoping for a flashy, offensive d-man who puts up big numbers they'll be disappointed. He's a big minute, defense first guy. He's the kind of guy you put with J.Schultz to make Justin look like an all star. Any points Klefbom will put up will be due to playing big minutes and making good first passes, basically 2nd assists and the occasional slapper. If he suddenly adds an actual offensive element watch out.

For some reason I thought he had missed significant time the year before last, thanks for correcting me. As per the bolded, Im not so sure.

Way too early to be saying stuff like that. It is what we hope for, but it for sure remains to be seen if that will be the case.

Agreed completely, way too early, before a player has actually shown he can consistently perform in the NHL it's always premature. Just pointing out what style of player he is. That's the kind of player we can hope for in a best case scenario. For all we know he may never get further than the AHL. I'm quite confident he'll be a soild NHLer but there are never any guarantees.

Agreed completely, way too early, before a player has actually shown he can consistently perform in the NHL it's always premature. Just pointing out what style of player he is. That's the kind of player we can hope for in a best case scenario. For all we know he may never get further than the AHL. I'm quite confident he'll be a soild NHLer but there are never any guarantees.

He sure looked good before his stint in OKC. Is it Klefa or is it the Oilers fugly development system? Is OKC where prospects go to die? Or are we expecting too much? Surely we were expecting better than what he has been doing. Statistically he is one of the worst if not worst dman down there. He hasnt looked very good to my eye in a few viewings either, although I havent seen a lot of games.

He sure looked good before his stint in OKC. Is it Klefa or is it the Oilers fugly development system? Is OKC where prospects go to die? Or are we expecting too much? Surely we were expecting better than what he has been doing. Statistically he is one of the worst if not worst dman down there. He hasnt looked very good to my eye in a few viewings either, although I havent seen a lot of games.

One of the media guys, don't remember who, suggested that Oilers should add a couple of pure development coaches from the NCAA or other development leagues to the org. I was surprised(well not really, sadly...) they didn't already have this but I like the idea. And especially down in OKC. They should look for guys with a great development track record from the CHL, NCAA or perhaps even european juniors. Bring 'em in to focus on individual coaching.

I think Todd Nelson is doing fine getting guys ready for the show, the players going the AHL route usually are the longshots more than the sure-fire NHLers and guys like Arco, Lander, Pitlick etc have looked well prepared tactically and physically coming up.
I feel he could use some help with the fine-tuning, especially when it comes to d-men since it's such a hard position to play at the NHL level.
Nelson so far hasn't really killed anyone, the guys who failed did it by themself, and most players so far are playing ok or better than you could expect. But his first real test is this and last seasons influx of young d-men. Considering it's absolutely crucial for this org that he succeeds in turning at least a couple of them into good/great NHLers I'd say give the man some help.

Pretty sure the last 2 years OKC has started out slow as the new influx of guys gets used to the league and Nelson figures out his team. They've always turned out pretty well by the end of the season. That's development. There has not been much consistency year to year down there.